IPL 2018 Is About Comebacks and New Beginnings

The eleventh edition of Indian Premier League holds different contexts and meanings for different teams. The Indian Express picks and pieces together the narrative threads of the franchises, as they begin to soak in the two-month long carnival of T20 cricket.

LEADING VOCALS: The teams that mirror their captains

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Between the two editions of the IPL, Virat Kohli’s stature, as a batsman and skipper, has leapt manifold times. Centuries, double centuries, a prized overseas Test win, limited-over series wins in South Africa, it has been an insuperable year for Kohli. An elusive IPL title would give a roundedness to his season. Since taking over Bangalore’s reins, Kohli has integrated the very characteristics of doggedness and feistiness that’s now the DNA of the Indian team, and changed Bangalore from a scattered constellation of superstars, who invariably drag themselves into the black-hole at the end.

Virat Kohli has integrated the very characteristics of doggedness and feistiness to RCB. (Source: PTI)

They’ve trimmed the star quotient this season—Shane Watson and Chris Gayle have departed—and if you take out Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, it’s more of a utilitarian than spectacular group. If he could enjoy half as good an IPL as his international season, RCB’s title aspiration would be closer to fulfillment.

Like their Ranji team, Mumbai Indians are a ruthless winning machine. (Source: PTI)

Mumbai Indians: If few teams have grasped and nuanced the dynamics of the league—from auction smarts and on-field strategising to winning titles— like them, fewer still have made title-winning look so commonplace, almost an extension of their skipper Rohit Sharma’s traits. On the field, Sharma (and Mumbai Indians) is the very antithesis of Kohli (and Royal Challengers Bangalore).

There’s little of Bangalore’s look-at-me-machismo, but more uber-coolness, an uncanny knack of coming back and winning matches from the dead, the masters of heists, not panicking at any stage, though at times looking self-destructively insouciant, like Rohit himself.

But far from it, they are a ruthless winning machine, like their Ranji team, though with less artisanic traits and more artistic flair. With reinforced fast-bowling ammo—Pat Cummins and Mustafizur Rahman are expensive but value-for-money picks–they could be even more unstoppable this time around.

RETRO BEATS: After ban, they’re back

Chennai Super Kings have more or less got their ensemble cast, who made them the most successful team before the Mumbai Indians took over. (Source: PTI)

Chennai Super Kings: They landed up at the Wankhede Stadium for their first full-strength team practice session on Thursday. And it almost felt like they’d stopped the tape in 2015, and simply rewound it back two years on for this their comeback season. They have more or less got their ensemble cast, who made Chennai the most successful team in the league before Mumbai Indians took over in their absence, back together. Their core still is heavily reliant on MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja and Faf du Plessis. And they have even got back a blast from the past in Murali Vijay, who was instrumental in them winning the IPL on two occasions. Even their support staff carries a sameness to it from when they were considered the super heavyweights of the league.

CSK do have a few new faces in the line-up, some fresh ones too, but their major recruitments at the auction were those who have headlined the IPL elsewhere for most parts of the last decade be it Harbhajan Singh and Shane Watson or Ambati Rayudu and Imran Tahir. The more things change, the more CSK seem to stay the same. And why not, considering the amount of success they enjoyed with this lot.

Generally known to be the most prudent and cautious of spenders, Rajasthan ended up scoring the costliest overseas and Indian buys respectively in Ben Stokes and Jaydev Unadkat. (Source: PTI)

Rajasthan Royals: Heinrich Klassen for Steve Smith. Could there have been a replacement pick that was more quintessentially Rajasthan Royals. Here you had one of the foremost batsman in the history of the game being replaced by a relatively unknown wicket-keeper, who pretty much made his name on the world stage only a month ago. But that’s always been the Rajasthan way. No wonder then that they raised many eyebrows with their strategy at the auction this year. Generally known to be the most prudent and cautious of spenders, they ended up scoring the costliest overseas and Indian buys respectively in Ben Stokes and Jaydev Unadkat.

But they also didn’t hold back when it came to pushing for some of the bigger names that came up, be it R Ashwin or even Shikhar Dhawan. They even adopted the Mumbai Indians trend of going for the flavours of the season in Jofra Archer and D’Arcy Short. But even the unexpected splurge upon their return to the IPL had a moneyball feel to it in terms of how systematically they got the players they wanted on board, and expect the Royals to have the retro feel to their camp, despite the many new names on board, and not just because Shane Warne’s back in town.

REDEMPTION ROAD: Underperformers seek an upswing of returns

Kings XI Punjab: Punjab have generally been the most low-key team in the league despite boasting of a glamorous co-owner, the most dashing batsman in Indian cricket history and a few big names over the years. Now in R Ashwin, seen as an unlikely T20 captain in many circles, they have at their helm a skipper who talks the talk and backs himself and his team to walk it.

They were also equally bold and “expressed themselves”– which seems to be the thing to do in world cricket these days–during the auction, loading their arsenal with a considerable amount of heavy-duty artillery. In Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh, David Miller and Aaron Finch, KXIP possess some of the foremost six-hitters in the history of the shortest format.

They also have enough local batting talent of high quality in KL Rahul, Karun Nair and Mayank Agrawal, which leaves them spoilt for choices in that department. Their bowling though pales in comparison, in terms of intimidation anyway, with Ashwin himself now no longer considered as a limited-overs bowler by the Indian selectors. And the time is just right for both Punjab and their new captain to now make a bold statement on the field, regardless of whether he’s bowling off-spin or leg-spin.

Delhi Daredevils have hired two powerful personalities as coach and skipper, Ricky Ponting and Gautam Gambhir respectively. (Source: PTI)

Delhi Daredevils:  On paper and debating threads, Delhi look destined to turn the creaky tables of their underwhelming past around. They have hired two powerful personalities as coach and skipper, Ricky Ponting and Gautam Gambhir respectively, as if all they lacked in the past was persona and character—they had among a slew of others men like Virender Sehwag, Mahela Jaywardene and Kevin Pietersen in the past.

Nonetheless, both bring plenty of title-winning credentials onto the table, though it would be interesting to see how two intrinsically fiery characters would get along.

Either, they could turn out to be a highly successful tag-team that could reacquaint Delhi with the good old days—the last time they reached the knockouts was in 2012—or it could be a flaky marriage that could turn sour, hurling Delhi further down the abyss. But this time around, more than ever before, they have assembled a balanced squad, unlike past season where they’d abysmally deficient on facet, that can mount a serious title challenge.

LOOK ALIKES: Under new captains, they look to recalibrate

Dinesh Karthik might not be as expressive or charismatic as his predecessor, but he’s strategically sharp and flexible, oozes dead-eye composure in tense situations and an infectious energy on the field. (Source: PTI)

Kolkata Knight Riders: At least in the first couple of weeks, Dinesh Karthik, the new skipper, will be the most scrutinised Knight Rider. From his batting to strategies, the shadow of his predecessor Gautam Gambhir will hulk behind him so much so that Gambhir will be the yardstick with which his reputation will be made or un-made .

But Karthik can carve his own legacy—both as a captain and skipper. He might not be as expressive or charismatic as his predecessor Gautam Gambhir, but he’s strategically sharp and flexible, oozes dead-eye composure in tense situations and an infectious energy on the field.

Like Gambhir, Karthik can impact matches single-handedly, and the newfound confidence of having turned a new corner in international cricket, will rub on to his batting. What needs to be seen is whether he can coerce a similar dressing-room spirit and environment—thankfully for him the nucleus of the side is more or less intact–and replicate a similar success rate with a thin fast-bowling stock, made to look thinner by the absence of Australian tearaway Mitchell Starc, who was injured during the sapping Test series against Australia

Sunrisers Hyderabad replaced David Warner with Kane Williamson as captain.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: “Take a leaf out of the way New Zealand play” is what outgoing Australia coach Darren Lehmann had said while speaking about the need for Australian cricket to change its culture. Sunrisers Hyderabad certainly seem to have agreed with Lehmann’s views as they replaced David Warner, banned from the IPL for this season, with New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson.

It’s unlikely to find two more contrasting characters in world cricket in terms of personality and demeanour, temperament and approach to leadership. And it is certain to have a significant impact on how the former champions approach their campaign.

Williamson isn’t the most adventurous of captains unlike Warner, who successfully brought an ultra-positive feel to his leadership on the field. While Sunrisers have held on to some of their stars from previous seasons in Bhuvaneshwar, Dhawan and Rashid Khan, the new skipper has a slew of highly-skilled all-rounders to play with. It will also be a big challenge for Williamson, who’s never quite enjoyed a lengthy run in the playing XI previously, to create his own niche with the bat before he does so for his team.

Courtesy : indianexpress